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Archidon Leonopteryx

So, I finally got my Archidon in the mail yesterday! w00t! I cleaned up, put him together, and green-stuffed the seems so I could start painting tonight. Which, of course, is the hard part.

Because he's a beast, a flying beast at that, the possible color schemes out there are just mind boggling. What do you use as a reference? Modern reptiles? A render of one of the many flying dinosaurs, maybe? A dragon? Perhaps one of the zillion different kinds of birds?

Well, in the end, I decided to take my inspiration from the flying creatures featured in the movie Avatar, the Banshees and the Leonopteryx (or Toruk). I really like their dramatic, swirling color schemes, and the stark contrast offered by the black stripes.

So here's my start:

I started with a base coat of Skorne Red, and used an airbrush to paint the gradients: Ember Orange on the underbelly and wings, with Beaten Purple on the wingtips and chin/nose protrusions.

awesome scheme, i hope your not done the highlights cus the arms could probably need more tone/definition

Yeah, that's why I stopped where I did, as a matter of fact. I figured it would be pretty silly to continue with the striping until I actually DO the shadows and highlights. I was so excited to get started and experiment, I completely forgot about, you know, the proper order of things. heh

Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is.

I think that is fantastic, and its barely started lol, I definitely cant wait to see this finished. In fact this could be one of those models that you'd love to play against (no matter where in the world they are) just to see the paint job in real life.

Question about the markings....the black stripes, did you paint them yellow first? So you could see what the stripes would look like and then fill in with black, allowing you to paint the original colours back easily if you didn't like how things went (ie so you didn't have to paint over black). Or did you go around the edges of the black afterwards with the yellow? Either way look great!

Okay Mnkylord, I just might have to copy/steal that! My Archidon arrives next week hopefully and I did not have a plan on how I was going to paint him but after seeing yours (love the color choices!) I think I might have to do the same (or at least attempt it!

WoW.... I can't wait to see the finished product, please please keep posting more pictures! :-)

Some additional detailing around the head and mouth. I tried painting the gums and tongue (pinkish, like that of a snake or crocodile), and was horrified with the result. I think it was just too bright, with too many different colors on the model. Went back and based the mouth interior with a mix of bloodstone and skorne red. I'll get back to it later...

That is so ****ing badass I think my balls just dropped a second time... Seriously, words can't express how impressed I am with this model. Extremely well executed sir! With your skill, you should consider going "Avatar" with your whole skorne army.